A Selloff, But Here’s What’s Holding Up

By Brendan Conway

Blame paltry revenues at bellwether companies. Or the fiscal cliff. Or Europe. Whatever you blame, Friday’s session is turning into a selloff worthy of, oh, every third or fourth day of 2011. The S&P 500 is down 1.4% at 1437 at this writing midsession.

The price of at least a few other markets are holding up. Agricultural commodities are one, helping the PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA) gain 0.4% in afternoon trading. Supply worries are circulating. Ukraine’s warning that it could run out of exportable wheat is giving the commodity a boost, reports Dow Jones Newswires’ Owen Fletcher. Corn futures are also ahead, helping the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN) eke out a 0.1% gain.

Natural gas futures are up 1.5% amid predictions of cooler weather the next two weeks. Private forecaster WSI Energycast said Friday that a “sizeable pattern shift” will sharply cool the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., reports DJN’s Jerry A. DiColo. The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) is also up 1.5%.

As you’d guess, bonds are in demand Friday, but trackers of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities are doing unusually well. The Pimco 15+ Year U.S. TIPS Bond Fund (LTPZ) is up by 1.2% at this writing.

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